This invention relates to carburetor control devices and, more particularly, to an improvement for a pulsed solenoid used to control air bleeds to a carburetor's fuel circuits.
For some time, solenoids have been used with carburetors to control the bleeding of air into carburetor fuel circuits. Typically, an electronic control unit responds to electrical signals from various transducers to generate a control signal supplied to the solenoid. The armature of the solenoid is moved in response to this signal or variations in the signal to open or close air paths by which air is admitted into the carburetor fuel circuits. The net result is better control over the air-fuel ratio of the mixture produced by the carburetor, this helping increase fuel economy and reduce engine emissions.
Assembly of the solenoids used in the above-described control systems has previously required soldering of the input lines from the control unit to the coil winding leads of the solenoid. This is a time consuming assembly step. Further, because the solenoid is mounted on a bracket adjacent the carburetor, it is subjected to the same shock and vibrations the carburetor experiences. Over time, this can cause the connection to fail rendering the solenoid useless for control purposes.